Evidence from other trials (Kremer; Mulka and others; Dejaco and Ertl)

7.52 Josef Kramer was a defendant in Belsen trial of the SS personnel who operated Bergen-Belsen. He had also served as Lagerfuhrer of Birkenau during the time that Hungarians were being transported to Auschwitz. Like many camp personnel on trial Kramer had worked at Auschwitz before being transferred to Belsen. At the trial he admitted to his involvement in the operation and use of gas chambers at Auschwitz. He stated that Hoss was in charge of the gas chambers and that he received his orders from Berlin. Mrs Rosina Kramer also testified on behalf of her husband. She states that everyone in Auschwitz knew about the gas chambers.

7.53 At Kramer's trial Bimko, the Polish-Jewish physician, gave the evidence to which I have already alluded.

7.54 Dr Charles Bendel, a Rumanian Jewish physician who had been living in Paris before he was deported to Auschwitz, gave evidence that he had been detailed to work as a sonderkommando and in that capacity observed the gas chambers and crematoria in action. He testified that on occasion the Nazis would burn corpses in pits because the ovens could not cope with the number of people who had been killed.

7.55 Defendants at the Belsen trial inlcluded Dr Fritz Klein, an ethnic German from Rumania, who was a member of the SS. As a physician he admitted having taken part in many of the selections of those who were to be gassed. He claimed that he was acting on orders which were always given verbally. Another defendant at the Belsen trial was Franz Hoessler, who had been Lagerfuhrer at Auschwitz. In his evidence he admitted that gas chambers operated there. He stated that the selection of prisoners who were to be killed was undertaken by the doctors in the camp. He testified that the camp was inspected once a year by Himmler, who had given the order for people to be gassed.

7.56 Mulka, a member of Hess's staff, and others stood trial at Frankfurt in 1963-5. Hans Stark, a former SS officer, gave evidence that he had been employed in the Auschwitz Political Department. He described the role of the Department in relation to executions by gassing. He admitted to participation in gassings including on occasion pouring the Zyklon B in himself.

7.57 Walther Dejaco and Fritz Ertl were architects at Auschwitz. They were tried in Vienna in 1972. Ertl gave evidence that he had been employed at the Auschwitz Central Construction Office until 1943. He testified that new crematoria had been needed for "special actions". He confirmed that he knew the significance of that term. He said he had been told by Bischoff that no reference should be made to gassing.